


Something New

by AnneLilian



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, One Shot Collection, SnowBarry - Freeform, What-If, episode tag 1x12
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-12-10
Packaged: 2018-05-02 05:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5235125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnneLilian/pseuds/AnneLilian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They needed to get over their lost loves, so what if Barry had asked Caitlin out after capturing Shawna Baez? What did they have to lose?<br/>A collection of Snowbarry one-shots taking place throughout the series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'm driving

**Author's Note:**

> So this is just a little side project, because I absolutely love Snowbarry and there aren't enough in-universe fics about them. This will be a collection of one-shots taking place throughout the series, and yes, I do take requests, so feel free to leave a comment.

“Time for me to move on… find someone new to be crazy about,” Caitlin said with a soft smile.

Barry stood, frozen in the moment. Seeing Caitlin finally realize that she could be her own person, not defined by her past and her grief, made him happy. She was the most amazing person he knew, and that was saying something, considering the people he regularly hung out with. “Do you want to grab dinner together?” he asked before he could stop himself. God, he shouldn’t do this. What _was_ he even doing in the first place?

Caitlin’s face fell, her mouth open in a perfect ‘oh’. Okay, definitely the wrong thing to say. Maybe he could backpedal and say that he meant it just as friends. “Are you… do you mean as a date?” she asked, clearly surprised.

Just say no, his brain suggested. “Yeah…” Clearly, his mouth was no longer connected to his brain, that was bad. “But if you don’t want to, that’s fine, I don’t–”

“No,” she interrupted. “I… I’d like that.” A small smile played around her lips, and Barry swore that it was the best sight he’d seen all day.

His face split into a grin. “Great. Great. Uhm… Do you – I mean, do you want to… get dinner tonight?” he stammered. Why was this so hard? She’d already said yes, and it was Caitlin for crying out loud. They were friends, after all, and it was just dinner.

Caitlin grinned. “Sure. But I’m driving,” she said, poking his chest with a finger. “Last time I let you carry me, it took me ages to fix my hair.”

Barry laughed. “Sure. I’ll meet you at your place at… 7?”

“It’s a date.”

They kept smiling, until Barry realized that he was being weird, and that Caitlin probably had better stuff to do than stand around all day. “Right, so… I’ll see you tonight.”

“Yeah,” Caitlin said, blushing. “Bye, Barry.” She ducked her head and headed back to her lab.

Barry stayed in the hallway for another minute. He’d just asked Caitlin Snow out for a date. There’s always been a connection between them, from the moment he commented that she didn’t smile very much. And he really liked her, but he wasn’t entirely sure how fair it was to ask her out when he was still in love with Iris. On the other hand, she was moving on from Ronnie…

Maybe they could help each other move on. Barry smiled at the thought, surprised by how happy it made him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I finally got around to writing all this, and I think it turned out okay. Let me know what you guys think!

**Chapter 2:**

Knowing it was Caitlin was both helpful and nerve wrecking. Barry was outside her door, a full fifteen minutes early, and he was debating whether to knock or just wait. Maybe he should run home and pick a different shirt?

On the one hand, this was Caitlin. He _knew_ Caitlin, and she knew him. He knew what she liked, and her pet peeves, he knew what she liked to eat and what she was allergic to. He knew that she wouldn’t judge him.

But on the other hand, this was _Caitlin_. If he somehow did manage to mess up, could they still recover their friendship? Could they still work together if they took this step?

He was shaken from his thoughts when Caitlin’s door opened. “I thought I heard someone pacing,” she said with an amused grin. “Come on in, I’m almost done.”

Her easy smile immediately put him at ease, as it had always done. “You look… beautiful,” he said. She was wearing a white and cream colored dress and gold jewelry. It wasn’t as flashy as the dress she’d worn to the karaoke bar, but no less fitting.

Caitlin smiled, and Barry was surprised to see a faint blush spread over her cheeks. “Thanks, Barry. What do you have there?” she asked as she slipped into her heels.

Barry glanced at the basket he’d brought. He’d had a difficult time trying to figure out where to take Caitlin, since this was hardly a standard first date, but he thought he’d found a good place. “You’ll find out when we get there,” he teased, grinning at her.

Caitlin frowned lightly at him, but couldn’t seem to keep the smile off her face either. “Should we go?” she asked as she pulled on a light jacket.

“Yeah,” he said, and held open the door for her. “After you.”

Caitlin grinned. “Why thank you, Mr. Allen,” she said playfully.

“You’re very welcome, doctor Snow.” It wasn’t often that he got to see that side of Caitlin, her playful, funny side. He knew she didn’t think of herself that way, that she actually believed that distant persona that she played was a part of her true self, but he knew better. Barry had seen past the walls she kept in place, and knew she wasn’t the same as the mask she put on.

“So, where are we going?” she asked as they took the elevator down.

“It’s a secret,” Barry replied, mock-seriously.

“Do I need to be worried?” Barry was fairly sure she was only half joking.

He leaned against the back wall of the elevator. “Oh come on, would I take you somewhere you wouldn’t be comfortable?” he asked teasingly. “Although with my luck, some kind of catastrophe is bound to happen.”

Caitlin laughed. “Not everything we do ends in disaster, Barry.”

“Great, now you’ve jinxed us. We should just give up now, we’re doomed,” he joked as they stepped out of the elevator and headed to the car.

“Oh come one, where’s your sense of adventure?” she laughed.

"I get enough adventure as it is, running around Central City," he replied, getting into the car.

“True enough, I suppose,” she admitted. “Where to?”

She was already reaching for her GPS, but Barry gently pushed her hand away. “Just drive, I’ll tell you when to turn,” he said, with a grin. He knew Caitlin didn’t like surprises all that much, but he figured she’d be able to appreciate this one.

With a smirk, she took her hand away from the GPS and continued driving straight. "Alright, Mr. Navigator, you take charge."

/*/

It only took a few moments – which was probably an eternity for Barry – before they got to their destination. “Barry, why are we at your old apartment building?” she asked, confused. She’d thought they would go to a restaurant.

Barry just grinned mischievously. “Would you just wait and see, I promise it’ll be a nice surprise,” he said.

Caitlin narrowed her eyes. “Alright,” she said hesitantly. “I trust you.”

Barry grinned even wider and unlocked the door. “They never asked for my spare key back,” he explained.

Caitlin eyed the building. She’d never been there, but she knew the neighborhood. It was more towards the edge of the town, but it was still a pretty high building. “Isn’t your apartment being leased to someone else now?”

“It is,” Barry replied, grabbing her hand and leading her up the stairs. “But we’re not going to my old apartment.”

“Barry,” she said, halting him. “I didn’t exactly dress for stairs,” she said, gesturing to her heels.

Barry winced. “Right, sorry.” Before she could protest, he’d picked her up, bridal style, and had sped up the stairs, all the way to the roof. And miraculously, her hair remained more or less intact.

And then she noticed the roof itself, and she was speechless. “Oh my god…” she whispered. Colorful lights were strung up, lining a small area of the roof, where pillows and blankets provided a place to sit or lay down. Barry produced the basket he’d been holding earlier, and Caitlin realized it must be their picnic. "Barry, this is incredible," she said softly.

Barry rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I wasn’t sure, I mean… I didn’t know if… It’s too much, isn’t it? I should have just made a reservation at a restaurant.”

“No! No, Barry, this is perfect!” she said, unable to stop smiling. She knew it had probably only taken him a few minutes to set this up – if that – but it was the gesture that moved her. “We’re past all that awkward first date stuff anyway, right?”

Barry grinned and dropped his hand. “Well then, doctor Snow, are you hungry?” he asked, holding out his arm.

She grinned right back as she hooked her arm through his. “Lead the way, Mr. Allen.”

Barry was really great all night. He told her about his childhood, and the hijinks he’d sometimes get up to. “No, really, I had no idea, but I really wanted to do something nice for Joe,” he said, laughing.

“How old were you again?” Caitlin asked through her giggles.

“I was thirteen, and let me tell you, Joe wouldn’t let me near the kitchen for weeks after that.”

Caitlin laughed. “I can’t believe you managed to get a blueberry pie to explode.”

“Hey, every scientist has their setbacks, right? Besides it’s your turn,” he replied.

They’d decided to take turns telling the other person something they didn’t know. “Uhm… Let’s see. I once ran away from home.”

“Really?” Barry asked, looking surprised and amused.

Taking another sip of her wine, Caitlin made a sound od assent. “Yes. I packed a backpack and everything. But I wasn’t allowed to cross the street on my own, so I just walked down the block and sat in front of the ice cream shop for an hour. The owner called my parents when he realized I was there on my own.”

Barry laughed and lay back on the blankets. “How old were you?”

“I was 6. I was angry at my parents for making me go to another girl’s birthday party. She was a bully, and I really didn’t like her, but her parents had invited all our classmates, so I had to go,” she explained, laying back as well.

They fell into a comfortable silence for a while. “You can almost see the stars from here…” Caitlin said, looking up. There was too much light to make out anything more than the brightest stars, but it was a cloudless night, and there was plenty to look at.

“See those three stars there?” Barry said, scooting closer and pointing to the sky. “Those are part of Orion’s belt. The other stars aren’t bright enough to see, but usually those are visible.”

“Genius scientist, superhero, _and_ he knows his stars,” Caitlin teased, turning her head to look at him. “Is there anything you’re not good at?”

Barry chuckled. “Plenty, but that’s why I have all of you, my team. I wouldn’t be able to do any of it without you, Caitlin,” he said in a soft voice.

Suddenly, Caitlin was painfully aware of how close they were. She could just lean in and… _No, stop that!_ she thought to herself. _It’s too soon!_ She turned away, a guilty look no doubt on her face. “Barry… I’m sorry, this… I had so much fun, and I thought I was ready for this…”

He looked a little guilty, and Caitlin had no doubt he was thinking about Iris. They had no business starting something if they were both still in love with someone else. It was easier for her though, Caitlin thought. Iris was in Barry’s life constantly, but Ronnie… Ronnie was gone. Whatever she’d seen, that wasn’t her Ronnie anymore.

“I’ll take you home,” Barry said softly. He got up and offered her a hand, pulling her to her feet.

God, this was Barry, sweet Barry who’d helped her through so much, even if she’d only known him for a little while. He could see right through her walls, and always knew exactly what to say, and now… “Barry?” she whispered, stepping closer. Her heels made it so she was only an inch or so smaller than him, so she could look him in the eye. “I really did have a great time.” She leaned in and pressed her lips to his cheek. It felt like such a small gesture, so insignificant, but as she looked at him again, she knew Barry understood the sentiment behind it. _I’m sorry, I’m trying, I really do like you, I don’t want to stop, it’s too early._ All that was in that kiss, and all that, Barry could see.

Perhaps they weren’t quite alright yet, but they would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback please!


End file.
